Today I’m proud to share a special announcement. If you follow me on Facebook you’ve probably caught wind of this, but for everyone else, here’s the big news:

I’m going to Nourished so that I can teach YOU about Food Photography!

You must be wondering….

What is Nourished?

Nourished is a food blogger conference specially designed for those of us eating or writing about a special diet. You might be on a “special diet” if you eat gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, etc because of diagnosed sensitivities, or simply because you choose to eat more wholesome, less processed foods most of the time (like me!).

Honestly, I wondered this myself when Amy first approached me with this opportunity.

There are hundreds of bloggers out there who’s pictures I lust over every day; wouldn’t they be much more suited to this? I have no professional training. I only got my first dSLR in 2011; for 4 years I was blogging with a basic point-and-shoot. Fumbling around with my camera, I’ve probably only figured out half of what it’s capable of. I don’t have a fancy in-home studio filled with what seems like an entire Home Goods store worth of props. I hear that the best foodie photographers work only with natural light. Well, I haven’t quit my day job yet, and I exercise every evening, which means dinner is never ready before 8pm. I don’t have endless time to prop and style my food. 98% of my photos are shot at night with artificial lighting. I don’t know how to set up my shot in the “technically correct” way that a pro might tell you, but I’ve figured out how to make my camera settings and dining room space work for my situation. Enough so that I make it onto those popular foodie photo sites once in a while (not 100% of the time though!)

And then Amy pointed out, and I realized: That’s exactly what qualifies me. Nothing fancy or too high-tech, I’ll be sharing what I’ve taught myself and my hope is that you’ll return home ready to immediately start taking prettier pictures of your food.

Consider this my personal invitation for you to join me at Nourished this April. Buy your tickets now because I would LOVE to meet you. I just know that we’ll inspire each other to do better at what we’re already doing. See you there!

Hey Joelen! I admit I forgot about you and being gluten-free now so it didn’t even occur to me that you might have something to do with this! I will be in town for the whole weekend, yes, but I don’t think I’m going to attend the expo. Ben is coming with me and we have some good friends who we’re going to stay with Friday and Saturday night. But yes, it would be nice to meet up! hope we can work something out 🙂

Cara! I feel like it is so serendipitous I found your blog a few days ago! I love EVERYTHING on your blog. It actually inspired me to resurrect my old blog.
So, I just relaunched my own cooking blog yesterday! When I looked at the stats for the first time ever, 2,000 people had been to my site! (I have not written anything since 2005) This round it is Gluten Free.
The single most annoying part of the process was the photos. I have a simple point and shoot, and at this point, that is what I am going to have for awhile. I wish I could go to this conference! Wow! How fun. Thank you as well for posting all the information about GF gurus. I am new to this.
I look forward to hearing all about your adventures. Keep up the good cooking and writing. I am making a version of your veal stew tonight.

I didn’t know this!! Congrats!!
Um, hello… most of your photos use artificial light?! How do you make them look so good. That’s a big beast that I haven’t managed to tame yet. I wish I could go so badly! You’ll share a re-cap of your session on here, right? 😉

Thank you for sharing this info! I am never up to speed on conferences so I appreciate you posting this. I’m a running a healthy eating program on my site right now and it’s centered around low-gluten, low-dairy foods. It’s inspired me to eat this way for the rest of my life. I’m going to look into attending this conference, so thank you!